Lethal agent stockpile is halfway eliminated

by Karen Lee Scott
Staff Writer

Halfway there.

On Sunday Sept. 12, the Tooele Chemical Agent Disposal Facility (TOCDF) of the Deseret Chemical Depot (DCD) transcended the 50 percent mark of eliminating 13,616 tons of chemical agents — the nation’s single-largest stockpile of weapons.

“Reaching the halfway mark in destroying the chemical agent stockpile, and doing it safely, gives all of us a feeling of accomplishment, yet we also recognize there is much more work to do,” said EG&G General Manager Gary McCloskey. EG&G employs 850 workers who operate and maintain the TOCDF.

The TOCDF has already completely destroyed the DCD stockpile of GB (Sarin) nerve agent-filled munitions and is presently working on the elimination of containers with VX in them. The VX project is expected to be finished in the Spring of 2005 and after that the plant will be reconfigured to begin the elimination of those munitions containing mustard blister agent.

DCD spokesman Chuck Sprague said getting the plant ready for the mustard campaign could take anywhere from six months to a year.

The Army has scheduled the complete elimination of the stockpile by 2008.

“We’re making progress in completing our mission, and above all, we’re completing the mission safely,” said Ted Ryba, TOCDF acting site project manager. “Because of the work going on here, risk to the local community from the storage of obsolete and deteriorating chemical weapons is far less today than it was in 1996 when chemical operations began.”

“The United States is leading the way for the rest of the world in the destruction of aging, deteriorating chemical weapons,” said Col. Raymond T. Van Pelt, DCD commander.

He added, “I’m proud of all workers on this depot, the government civilians who have transported more than 20,000 separate shipments of munitions to the plant and those working for the TOCDF systems contractor, EG&G. They all are making important history with this monumental team effort.”

Ryba said reaching this mark was “a great milestone for the project.”

e-mail: kscott@tooeletranscript.com